To aid you in the process of maintaining multiple-file applications, Visual LISP provides a construct called a project. A Visual LISP project contains a list of AutoLISP source files, and a set of rules on how to compile the files. Using the project definition, Visual LISP can do the following:
- Check which .lsp files in your application have changed, and automatically recompile only the modified files. This procedure is known as a Make procedure.
- Simplify access to source files by listing all source files associated with a project, making them accessible with a single-click.
- Help you find code fragments by searching for strings when you do not know which source files contain the text you're looking for. Visual LISP limits the search to files included in your project.
- Optimize compiled code by directly linking the corresponding parts of multiple source files.
Before discussing how to define and use Visual LISP projects, it may help to introduce file types used in Visual LISP.